Selected entries from actress Billie Burke's regular column in the Fort Wayne Sentinel
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Selected entries from actress Billie Burke's regular column in the Fort Wayne Sentinel Billie Burke on Hair and Make-up |
12th September, 1912
Billie Burke on Hairdressing
The first word: NEVER MIND THE FASHION. DRESS YOUR HAIR BECOMINGLY
I see by the hair shop windows and the shape of the new fall hats that the elaborate coiffure is still to be worn this fall and winter.
"What has the shape of the hat got to do with it?" you ask. A great deal; hair-dressing always follows the shape of the hat, and with the big crowns that one sees in all the new hats, one must dress one's hair in a way to fill them out.
Many young women follow every vagary of fashion in regard to the hair, and regardless of the fact that they may have round faces and low foreheads, they will this year bring their braids and twists forward clear over their foreheads, and allow little curls which peep from under to reach their eyebrows. It will not matter to them whether their braids are large or small; they will pile on fake hair because it is the fashion.
Many women look well with their hair arranged elaborately, but it usually adds ten years to one's face no matter how becoming it is. As a rule the simpler one combs one's hair, the younger it will make one look, although many women can in their later years improve upon their youthful style of hairdressing.
Coiffures should grow more formal as one grows older, and after one turns gray nothing but the most elaborate hair-dressing of puffs and soft braids should be used.
Don't, I beg of you if your hair is turning gray, think it will look well with flying tendrils and wisps about your face. These may be all right on a young girl, but they make a woman over forty look like a picture of the Witch of Endor.
I think one's hair shows age sooner than any other part of one with the exception of the hands. Even if your hair does not grow gray, it becomes limp and stringy. It does not seem to have that life and electric energy which makes it fluff and curl about a young face.
The girl whose hair grows pretty around her face is fortunate, indeed, and the one who has the "five points of Venus," as little points of hair at the ears, the temples and the one in the middle of the forehead are called, should always comb her hair so that they will show. There is, however, a little superstition about the girl whose hair grows in a deep point in the center of her forehead. It is that she will be a young widow.
A great many women of individuality wear their hair always in the same way. Mrs. Langtry has always worn hers in that soft, low coil at the nape of the neck which was so much worn by every English woman when she was the professional beauty of England. This way of combing the hair sets off the line from one's temple to one's shoulder perfectly. Bernhardt has always worn hewr hair in a tangle over her eyes and about her ears. She did this to conceal the thinness of her face. Ellen Terry has always affected a low hairdressing, with a big black bow. This sets off her blond coloring and brightens the gold of her hair. You see from my picture that I wear my hair very simply as it curls naturally about my face and I shall hate the day when I have to "tidy up" the stray locks.
It will be seen from the pictures which I have drawn, of some of the very latest coiffures, that to be in style you must wear either coils and braids from the nape of your neck clear over your forehead. The ears are covered and in many cases ornaments are placed just above them. A bright girl will look at these pictures and, seating herself before her mirror, can arrenge her hair so that it will have the same contour as these drawings, and yet she will give an original twist to her hair that is for her only. She can always remember one thing, however, even if she wears her hair very differently - she will not look out of style if she keeps her hair clean and fluffy, and dresses it becomingly.
Just One Last Word: IF A WOMAN'S HAIR IS HER CROWN OF GLORY, IT BEHOOVES HER TO KEEP IT BRIGHT AND SHINY, AS WELL AS PROPERLY PLACED.
14th December, 1912
Billie Burke Says There is Nothing So Hideous As a Lot of False Hair on a Girl's Head.
The First Word: ONE OF THE BEAUTIES THAT MEN LOVE MOST IN A WOMAN IS BEAUTIFUL HAIR.
Some poet has rhapsodized over hIS sweetheart's hair, declaring that she might draw him to her with a single strand. He was probably taking some poetical license, but the fact remains that all literature is full of references to the hair of women.
An actress has to be particularly careful of her hair, as the powder that gets into it and the many ways she must often wear it, often in a single evening, are very hard on it. But the actresses with fine hair are always very proud of it.
There is nothing so good for the hair as massage, and I am going to tell you how I massage mine. Before dressing the hair and when taking it down at night, loosen it by giving the ends two or three light shakes; place the tips of the fingers of both hands at the juncture of the hair and the forehead and then work them with a circular motion gently but firmly toward an imaginary center of the top of the head. At each turn of the fingers, let them work lightly on the surface, and then deeply, the first motion is for the hair follicles themelves, the next for moving the scalp on the head so as to make it soft, yielding and flexible.
Second Movement — Place the tips of the fingers so that the forefinger of each hand will meet at the spot where the last massage left off. This will bring the fingers of each hand over an ear at the juncture of the hair and skin. In the same manner as before, they should work over the hair roots with light and deep massage until the fingertips meet at the center at the top.
Third Movement — The fingers of each hand are placed so as to meet at the back of the neck where the hair begins and, describing the same motions an before, they work themselves upward to the center.
In this manner the entire scalp, in less than five minutes, receives a thorough stimulation. The hair responds at once and will he found full of life, and electricity, where before it was lifeless and dull. It will also make the whole head feel lighter and better. It will keep the scalp healthy and prevent the hair from falling.
Be sure that you dress your hair becomingly, and the simpler you dress it the better. There is nothing so hideous as a lot of false puffs and braids on the head of a pretty girl who would look stunning if she would only wear her own "glory crown" put up in a fashion that suited her.
Just One Last Word: KEEP YOUR HAIR CLEAN AND FLUFFY. BRUSH IT UNTIL IT BLOOMS AND IT WON'T MAKE ANY DIFFERENCE IF YOU DO NOT COMB IT IN THE LATEST FASHION IF THE WAY YOU DRESS IT IS BECOMING.
4th February, 1913
It's All Right to "Make Up" Your Face, Says Billie Burke, But Make It Look as if Nature Did the Work
More than half the requests I receive from my male friends say: "Please, Miss Burke, tell the girls not to use any make-up." They seem to think that if a girl is healthy she will be beautiful.
YOU CAN BE HEALTHFUL WITHOUT BEING BEAUTIFUL, BUT YOU CANNOT BE BEAUTIFUL WITHOUT BEING HEALTHY.
Consequently a judicious amount of artistic beautifying is not only permissible, but necessary, if a woman would appear at her best. No man should rail against women using face powder as in every barber shop now-adays powder is rubbed into the faces of patrons after a shave. I see no reason why a woman should allow her eyebrows to meet over her eyes or to show long, ugly, scragley hairs at the corners, when she can pull them out or even shave them off. Of course, some men might object to this if they knew their wives did it, but "wifey" might retort by asking, "Why do you shave the back of your neck? Aren't you as well as I, trying to improve upon nature?"
Tomorrow, after you have taken your bath, splash cold water all over your face and then take a piece of ice in a cheese cloth rag and rub it all over your face and neck until you have brought the blood to the surface. You will find this will brighten your eyes as well as freshen your complexion.
Now plaster your face and neck with a pure cold cream. Don't he stingy with it; rub it in with soft upward and circular strokes and wipe off all the superfluous cream. If you find that your ice and cream have not given you enough color, you can put just a very little rouge on each cheek. Most women who use rouge use the kind that comes in colored grease sticks. Put a little, dab upon each cheek bone near the eyes and a tiny bit on your chin. Now softly spread this upward toward the eyes and off toward the ears.
Some girls use a little rouge on their ears, as a tinted cheek and white ears apt to make one look tubercular or anaemic. Carefully examine your face in a hand glass to see that it is not in any way "patchy," then dust your face and neck all over with powder — and again, don't he stingy.
After this take your eyebrow brush and carefully brush out your eyebrows and wipe off your lashes with a heavy cloth between your thumb and forefinger. If your eyebrows are light in color, or thin, apply a little mascara, which is a water color and perfectly harmless. You can buy it at any drug store. If your lips are pale apply a little of the tinted cold cream. This will be good for them, as well as making them look better.
Leave, all your powder on until you have combed your hair, then take a powder puff, or better, the soft little brush which is used on a baby's hair, and brush off all the superfluous powder, using upward strokes until the very last, then going over the whole face quickly with downward strokes.
I'll wager after all this is done, if you do it carefully, the grimmest-eyed old bachelor will not be able to detect the slightest art in your make-up, and he will probably go around telling everybody what a pretty girl you are — so natural and unartificial.
Go ahead, girls, and do everything you can do to enhance your beauty, but remember that the cleverest and almost always the prettiest girl is the one who makes art look like nature at her best.
11th October, 1913
GETTING THOSE WRINKLES OUT 0F THE FACE by BILLIE BURKE
If your mirror tells you that you are thin enough to look well in the winter modes you can congratulate yourself and ask it some other questions. It is very probable that you will find some little wrinkles about your eyes and perhaps one or two between your eyes if you have been but of doors much this summer.
It is almost impossible to look the sun in the face or even to look into its bright rays while playing tennis or other outdoor games without squinting up the eyes. I have seen girls this fall whose skin about the eyes were full of little lines of white, as if they were put on with a paint brush because they had wrinkled it up when they were outdoors, little lines are rather fascinating when the rest of one's face is tanned brown.
But now, of course, you want to get these wrinkles out. You must understand that it is much easier to get wrinkles in your face than to take them out, just as it is easier for one to acquire a bad habit than to break it. The first thing to do is to give your face a steam bath. This is accomplished by pouring very hot water into a deep kettle and bending your face over it with a Turkish towel or any other heavy material thrown over both your head and the kettle. After your face is thoroughly steamed wipe it carefully and rub it well with a good cold cream. I have given the formula for one so often that it seems useless to do it again.
Now begins the massage: Take the first and second fingers of your left hand and very lightly stretch the skin about the corner of your eye until it is smooth, then rub very gently between with the forefinger of your right hand. The idea you must have in your mind while doing this is that you are smoothing out a precious bit of a very thin gold leaf — the kind you have seen at your dentist.
After you have smoothed the corners of both eyes very lightly, begin at the corners next the nose and draw the two first fingers of your hands across your eyelids. Then start with a little more strength at the bridge of your nose and rub over your eyebrows toward the temples, back over the cheek bone, up the side of the nose to the bridge again. Rub the wrinkles between the eyes across. Of course, you have to use cold cream to make these movements easy.
Now if you have a little time smooth out the wrinkles about your eyes and put over them a bit of court plaster; also over the ones between your eyes. Lie down and put a cloth wet with cold water over your eyes and keep perfectly still for a half hour thinking of nothing if possible.
Don't think because this is a good thing that you must do it every day — twice a week is sufficient, and remember that you can smile as well as frown without making wrinkles in your face. Consult your mirror on this subject.